While I
was modelling brain function and REM function on my computer, I
thought I should read a little more about what other great
scientists like psychologist Sigmund Freud and neuroscientist
Allan Hobson thought about why we dream. I came across an area
called 'lucid dreaming', or 'conscious dreaming', where the
sleeper becomes conscious during the course of a dream.
Researchers at the Stanford University used people who were able
to readily initiate lucidity during dreaming to answer the age
old question as to whether we try to act out our dreams and if
they last for as long as they appear to last in our dreams.
The answer was a double yes. For example when a dreamer
dreamt that he was swimming underwater he actually held his
breath, and another dreamer dreamy she was having sex, the
researchers in the laboratory noticed she was also having vaginal
contractions. In short, dreams are real in the brain.
We also know that dreams are concerned with our own
memories. You dream about your memories and I dream about
mine. We (adults) dream for about 2 hours each night,
whereas a newborn has about 8 hours of REM sleep a day.
What could a baby dream about? What memories could it
possibly have? Well a baby could dream about its life back
in the womb. And because a baby does not have to breathe in
the womb, because it's mother supplied it with oxygen, it may
stop breathing, just as the researcher actually held his breath
when he dreamt he was swimming underwater. This fascinating
and simple theory is consistent with all of the known facts about
SIDS, such as why there is no known cause of death, why the prone
position is higher risk, etc. To read more about my
theory, you will need to buy my book "Memory and
Dreams'. Here are some media releases (coming soon):

SIDS is
a mysterious phenomenon, where more than one in every thousand of
all live births results in a death that seems to have no apparent
cause.SIDS is only diagnosed after every other cause of
death has been excluded, and after a rigorous investigation of
the death scene and the family’s medical history.In
Chapter 6 of my book I explain in some detail how my simple
theory on the cause and trigger of SIDS fits in with all of the
known facts about SIDS.I also review what is known about
this mysterious and prevalent cause of infant death.One of
the most remarkable findings about SIDS is that there are certain
risk factors associated with SIDS.For example if a baby is
put to sleep face-down, on its stomach, then its risk to SIDS is
increased by a factor of three or more, compared to the face-up
position.This has halved the number of SIDS cases, but
there is no satisfactory explanation of why this is so, other
than our theory.It has also been found that if an infant
sleeps with a dummy (or pacifier) its risk is decreased by a
factor reportedly as much as twenty-fold.One cannot
explain this by suggesting that ‘dummy sucking’ helps
by keeping the airway passages open, because ‘thumb
sucking’ should then presumably have a similar effect,
whereas it is actually associated with an increase in the risk of
SIDS.Our theory is consistent with the reduced risk
associated with dummy-sucking and the increased risk associated
with thumb-sucking, as well as the risk factors associated with
sleeping position.

I
suggest that, just as dreams can influence the body of the
infant, the reverse is also true, or that the environment of the
sleeping infant can influence its dreams.If the
environment of the sleeping infant resembles the conditions in
the womb, this would increase the risk of SIDS.When a baby
is sleeping face-down, it generally assumes a semi-foetal
position, where it tucks its arms and legs into its stomach.This may increase the probability of a potentially fatal foetal
dream.Thumb-sucking is a risk factor because it is
something that a foetus does in the womb, around seven months of
gestation.Dummy-sucking, on the other hand, would have the
opposite effect as it would remind the infant that it has been
born, that it is not in the womb, that it needs to breathe.Another strange observation about risk factors is that the risk
of SIDS is reduced if an infant sleeps in the same room as other
adults, but increases if the infant actually sleeps in the same
bed as other adults.In other words, room-sharing reduces
the risk of SIDS, whereas bed-sharing increases the risk of SIDS.We would assert that if an infant sleeps too close to an adult,
it may pick up their heartbeat and subsequently remind it about
being back in the womb.

My
simple theory is consistent with most, if not all, of the known
facts about SIDS, whereas most other theories are only consistent
with one of two of the known facts, and in some cases there is no
other explanation.

"After some forty five years of
extensive research, the cause of death classified as Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), has baffled science.It is
arguably the deepest mystery in medical science.Now, an
Australian mathematician believes he has stumbled onto unlocking
the mystery behind SIDS, while studying memory and dreams in
neural network models." ......